Kiss me, I'm Lucky!
by DeenaTweety
Summary: Lavender has finally found a job at the Ministry as Percy's secretary. But the gig isn't as cut and dry as it seems, and working for the picky Percy might prove to be a challenge. Percy is slowly finding that Lavender improves his life drastically.


She knew she was lucky.

She was lucky to be alive still, and she was lucky that she had a home, and she was lucky that she had friends (however few they were). Yeah, she came on hard times, but she had a mantra.

_I am lucky._

Lavender was twenty-four and just one week ago, she had been hopelessly unemployed. She knew how it was. She was a werewolf and that really doesn't sit well with people. Even if they aren't afraid of you, they don't like that you need at least four days a month away from work to deal with your little problem. Even all that aside, you needed to _know_ people, and well, she didn't really _know _anyone.

Sure, she'd gone to school with the heroic Harry Potter and even once dated the famous Ron Weasley. But she certainly wasn't best friends with either of them. And she sort of doubted that they would get her a job in the auror office, not that she ever wanted one.

As depressing as it all was, she was lucky that she'd run into Hermione Granger-Weasley in the market that day. She hadn't even been planning to go on a Tuesday, because ever since everything had happened she'd been kind of reluctant to go out. The fact was that she just couldn't wait until Saturday to get her groceries.

"Oh, hello, Lavender," Hermione said when she saw her. Lavender noticed that she had kind of a weird look on her face, but everyone did when they saw the scars. "I haven't seen you in ages!"

"Hi, Hermione," she replied. She never knew what to say when people said that. _I haven't seen you in ages!_

"So, do you shop here all the time?" Hermione asked after a second.

"Oh, every Saturday I go to the market. I just needed to grab some groceries. You know."

"Yeah. So how have you been? Would you like to go to the café down the street and catch up? My treat."

Lavender almost hadn't agreed. She didn't usually go out, preferring to just host little get-togethers at home.

"Well, it's been a while since I've had a real cappuccino," she said. She hadn't expected three whole hours to pass at the tiny outside table, talking to Hermione about… well, everything. Particularly, injustices done to those who weren't legally considered human. And honestly, while Lavender rarely believed people when they said they felt empathetic toward werewolves, Hermione was _on fire_. She was real.

She was completely indignant that Lavender hadn't been able to find even an entry-level job. She railed at the fact that Lavender had fought a war and she was still avoided; a social pariah.

"I'm not too bad off," Lavender said weakly, but Hermione wouldn't hear of it.

"I actually know someone who's looking for an assistant," Hermione said after a while when she had calmed down. "He's really nitpicky but he's family and he's a good person."

"I didn't know you had wizarding family, Hermione," Lavender replied. Hermione laughed and waved her hand.

"No, just in-laws," she sighed. "Do you know Percy Weasley?"

"I think he was head boy in our first year, wasn't he?"

"Yes. He's Ron's older brother."

"What does he do?"

"He's the Head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. He basically oversees all of the offices in that department. His secretary just quit her job last week."

"Quit? Why did she quit?" Lavender asked. Although she knew that she was desperate enough for a job to put up with almost anything.

"Oh, um, she just didn't really have time to work for Percy full-time," Hermione said with a smile pasted on her face.

"Well, I have plenty of time," Lavender said, beginning to feel a little bit better about her situation. While the job wasn't a guarantee, there was hope. It was also sort of flattering that someone as organized as Hermione would think that Lavender would be good for a job like this.

Hermione dug a card out of her purse and handed it to Lavender. "This is the address to his office. I'll talk to him for you, how does that sound?"

Oh, it was almost too good to be true! That very next day, Lavender had been interviewed. Not by Percy himself, no, but by his old secretary. She thought that was a little strange, but she figured Percy was a busy man. After all, he was the head of a whole department.

She had been excited right up until this moment, an hour away from her first day at work. She hadn't slept a wink that whole night, she was so nervous.

What was she doing? She hadn't had a job in two years! And that was housecleaning! She looked at herself in the mirror, doing her breathing exercises and fighting the oncoming panic attack. She had half a mind to owl Percy Weasley's office and tell him she was terribly sick and she just couldn't make it!

But then she would get fired and then where would she be? So, trembling, she put on a navy blue blouse and a black knee-length skirt. It wasn't much, but it had been a while since she'd bought new clothes. She nearly called it quits when she couldn't find a hair tie, but she fought through the urge and just left it down, even though she knew it would get tedious.

Finally, with ten minutes left, she stood in front of her fireplace with a handful or floo powder.

Stepping into the pile of ashes, she threw down the powder with conviction, with confidence! "Ministry of Magic!"

LINEBREAK

Percy Weasley was swamped, literally _swamped_ in paperwork. One week without a secretary and he was sure he was going to get lost and die in this sea of papers. How had he not known how lost he was without an assistant? Although he very well couldn't call Amy an assistant, he supposed. She was not as helpful as her resume would have had him believe, oh no! Sure, she was good for the 9-5 tasks, but after that she was practically useless. And okay, maybe it wasn't necessarily her job to work overtime. But he certainly did, and he needed someone to help him out.

As evidenced by the stacks of paper taking residence in his office. He sighed. He'd only been head of this department for three months and he was already on his fourth secretary. What was going on? Where had everyone's work ethic gone?

He heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he said curtly, expecting his assistant. Wonderful, she was eight minutes early. That was fine; it was only her first day. He would let her know only to come five or ten minutes early. Nice, round numbers.

"Morning, Percy!"

"Oh, Hermione," he said. "I was expecting the new assistant."

"She should be here any minute. Listen, Percy, I just wanted to talk to you for a second."

He sighed and set down his paper. "I have a minute, I suppose," he said. It wasn't the truth, but he actually enjoyed talking to Hermione. She always had something intelligent to say.

"I just wanted to ask you if you remembered Lavender."

"Of course. She went to school with us." He checked his pocket watch again. She had two minutes to get here before he started getting serious doubts.

"Yes, well, I just wanted to tell you not to drive her away." Percy scoffed.

"What? Drive her away? I would never."

"Oh, like you didn't drive away Amy? Or Nancy? Oh, don't forget poor Trevor," she said with a frown, a hand on her hip.

"They all quit of their own volition, I had nothing to do with it," he said, feeling slightly offended. "I certainly never 'drove anyone away'. How did you ever get such an impression?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You're a smart guy, Percy. That is _three_ assistants. Now, who is the common denominator?" She took advantage of his shocked silence to wave goodbye and flee his office before he could defend himself.

"Nonsense," he muttered to himself. Hermione was barely gone for thirty seconds before he heard another knock on the door. "Come in!"

Lavender froze at the voice at the other side of the door. He didn't sound very nice, she thought nervously. Had she already done something wrong? She opened the door and stepped in timidly.

"Hullo," she nearly squeaked, the confidence she had mustered just a few minutes before coming here gone. Percy Weasley was just about as intimidating as she remembered. "I'm Lavender Brown, your new assistant."

"Miss Brown, excellent," he said, looking at his watch. "You're six minutes early."

"Um, yes," she said. "Did you want me here earlier?"

"Six minutes is fine, for now," he said. "I would have preferred you to be here five minutes early, though. If you would kindly arrive at work at least five minutes early, that would be perfect. You can be ten minutes early, or even fifteen, as long as you arrive in increments of five."

Lavender's jaw almost dropped. Was he being serious? "Oh, of course, Mr. Weasley," she replied when she saw the expectant look on his face.

"Thank you, Miss Brown. Now, do you think that twenty minutes would be enough time for you to arrange your desk?"

She nodded. "After that, do you want me to come in here?"

"I'll be coming to you," he said sharply.

"Oh… alright…" she said, still unsure of what to do. After a moment he gestured toward the door.

"Well, go on," he said. Lavender left the room quickly, and shut the door very carefully.

Her own desk was fairly large, and she found that she liked it. He'd given her twenty minutes to arrange her desk, but she really didn't have anything to put in it besides a few quills and notebooks. She looked around the office area. There were several offices with desks around them, filled with other people. Most of them had decorated their desks with personal items, like pictures of their families or even small stuffed animals.

She would never take something like that to work, she thought. Her stuffed animals stayed at home!

Percy had been serious when he'd given her twenty minutes. In exactly that time, He walked right out of his office, a stack of papers in hand. He set them gently on her desk in a perfect pile and stood back.

"Perfect," he told her. Perfect? Lavender didn't know what she'd done, but she was glad that he approved, she guessed. "I like a neat desk. No frivolous little things." She assumed he was talking about things like stuffed animals.

"Thank you," she replied. He put his hand on top of a stack of papers.

"Miss Brown, I would like you to go through each and every one of these papers and highlight the words "floo", "splice", and "accidental death", please." Her eyes widened. That was at least a hundred papers.

"Sure," she replied weakly.

"Thank you. Do you think ninety minutes will be long enough?" Lavender looked at the stack and thought. Highlighting words had to be easier work than cleaning an entire house, hadn't it? She was actually pretty sure she could do this.

"I think so," she replied cheerfully. Percy smiled.

"Thank you. In ninety minute's time come deliver these to Wesley at the main desk, down the main hall. I'm sure you won't have trouble finding it. Then report right back to me."

Lavender nodded, and when he went back into the office she tore into the stack of papers.

* * *

It turned out that highlighting every instance of a word in a stack of a hundred papers was harder than it sounded, but Lavender got it done just before ninety minutes was up. The rest of the day did not go so smoothly.

Percy Weasley was probably certifiably insane. He was obsessed with doing everything on time, or rather, within an exact amount of time. Lavender learned over the course of the day that he needed everything to be done in increments of five. He needed everything to be perfectly organized, something that wasn't too difficult for Lavender, but she found him extremely tedious.

She went out and got his dry cleaning, which wasn't too bad until she realized that she'd returned with it three minutes _earlier_ than he needed it, and he'd had her stand outside his office and pretend she wasn't there until the clock hit 4:35. The other secretaries looked at her with pity.

"So sorry," he said, and she didn't really think he meant it. He wasn't cruel, but he was so particular that she had to wonder if Hermione had been completely honest when she'd told her why the first secretary quit.

When the clock hit 5:00, she was relieved. Her first day of work at the Ministry was finally over. She knocked on the door to his office and entered when she heard his muffled voice telling her to come in.

Percy had expected her to come in at this time. After all, it was closing time, and she would surely ask him if it was alright to go home. It was the perfect time for a good, productive conversation.

"Hello, Mr. Weasley," Lavender said. He could see that she was tired.

"Please sit, Miss Brown," he said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. She smiled politely and sat. She scooted the chair slightly closer to the desk.

"Is there anything else you want me to do before I leave?" she asked, suddenly feeling nervous. What was the reason for this meeting? He was so terse and formal that she really didn't know what to expect. She used to pride herself on the ability to read people, but she wasn't sure how to read Percy Weasley. What if he was going to fire her or something?

"I would just like to have a short conversation with you. How did you find your first day?" he asked. She looked surprised that he'd asked.

"Well, I liked it," she replied, unsure of what to say. She hadn't been miserable, but she wasn't going to rave about what a wonderful time she'd had. And she definitely wasn't going to tell him that she suspected he had some kind of complex.

"Glad to hear it," he said. "I just thought I'd talk to you about this job. I was wondering if you owned a pocket watch."

"Um, I don't believe I do," she said, thinking. She was sure that her father might have. It would be in a box in the attic but she wasn't about to go searching for it.

"Do you think you could purchase some kind of timepiece sometime soon?"

Percy immediately regretted the question when he saw her face color. Her resume showed that she hadn't been employed for two years. He wished he'd been more sensitive, but he supposed he couldn't take it back.

"Maybe in a few weeks," she replied. Percy shook his head.

"That's not soon enough," he said, opening a drawer and searching through it. He had at least four pocket watches lying around. He pulled one out and handed it over to her. "Here, you can use this until your next paycheck, or until you can find a high-quality time piece."

Lavender reached out for the watch, surprised. It was just a regular pocket watch, hanging on a gold chain, but it was still very generous. "Would a regular watch work? I don't know if I should take this."

"Don't worry; I'm sure you won't lose it." It sounded more like a warning than a vote of confidence, she thought.

"I'll return it to you as soon as I can," she promised. He took out his own watch.

"Let's synchronize," he said. "I'm fifteen seconds from 5:05." Lavender hurried to set the clock. He counted down out loud and as soon as he reached 5:05, she started the watch.

"I think we're synced up," she said. Inwardly, she wondered if he was just eccentric, or a little crazy.

"Brilliant. I also had a few other things I wanted to discuss. Are you comfortable running personal errands for me? Like dry cleaning?"

"Um, yeah," she replied. "Your dry cleaning today was no problem at all."

"Alright. Occasionally I order out when I'm working late. You wouldn't mind picking up food for me in those instances?"

"No, not at all," she said. It didn't sound terribly hard.

"You're not concerned about missing out on social engagements?" She nearly scoffed at that one. Her? Social engagements?

"No," she replied.

"I stay late often. Ideally I'd like you to stay at work until I'm done. Of course I'll pay you extra," he said, lacing his fingers together. "Today you can go home early, since it's your first day."

So going home on time was going home early? Lavender wondered how late he really stayed at work. "I think that should be fine," she said, hoping she wouldn't regret it later.

"That's about all for now. Did you have any questions for me?" Percy asked, his wide brown eyes set on her. Lavender shifted in her chair.

"Well, yes, actually…" she said, suddenly feeling nervous. "Well, it's about my condition."

Percy straightened. Yes, her condition. He'd nearly forgotten. "Of course."

"I'll need at least four days a month off," she said slowly. This was it. "I can give you a schedule of the moon cycles, if you like," she finished quietly, her face flushing completely red under his gaze.

"That would be most advantageous, I think," he replied in his usual tone. "Four days?"

"Yes, um, the day before is really… draining…" Oh, she absolutely needed four days. If she couldn't get four days she would have to quit, she thought nervously.

"Yes," he said, urging her to continue.

"Then the next three days I need to recover," she finished. "I really hope you understand. I can't work here unless I can have four days."

Percy looked across the table at her. Yes, he understood, as well as he could, anyway. He liked Lavender so far, he decided, even if she hadn't quite gotten the hang of his time schedule yet. "You might know that my brother, Bill shares your condition," he said as pleasantly as he could. "So I understand your need for that time." She seemed to let out a breath she'd been holding in relief. "If you could get me a schedule of the phases of the moon, that would be most helpful."

"I have a few copies at home!" she said, seeming renewed. "I can bring one to work tomorrow."

"Perfect. Is there anything else you had concerns about?"

She honestly couldn't think of any. "I don't think so."

"Alright. Enjoy your evening. I'll see you tomorrow."

She bid him goodbye and walked as calmly as she could to the floo network.

When she arrived home, she flung herself on her bed and very nearly cried in relief. She couldn't believe that she had a job, a real, decent job. Not something like cleaning hotel rooms, or scrubbing toilets, the only jobs that people like her usually got.

And she repeated her mantra:

_I am lucky!_

* * *

A/N

Hey guys, this is sort of a short chapter because it's just the beginning. I'm just trying this out, because I absolutely love Lavender. She and Percy are such complex characters, and I think they might actually work as a couple!

Anyway, I will be updating soon, on this as well as Help Wanted. If you are interested in Neville/Pansy pairings, check it out! I'm pretty proud of it.

I just want you to also know that this story is rated T for now. I'd really like to try my hand at a lemon someday? Ha ha so this will probably be a story where that happens. Not in the next few chapters, so don't worry. :) So, please review and tell me what you think. I'm going to do my best to keep them in character. As you can tell, Percy is really prompt and a little neurotic in this, which was what I was going for. I tried not to make it too overwhelming but obvious. Maybe Lavender will help him relax, hm?

You'll have to read and review to find out! ;)


End file.
